WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Susan Collins, one of the lead sponsors of bipartisan, comprehensive postal reform, received praise for her leadership on the issue from the U.S. Postal Service Inspector General.

David C. Williams wrote to Senator Collins to express his appreciation for her work to put the Postal Service on a financially viable path.

Senator Collins' bill includes a one-year moratorium on closures of small, rural post offices unless there is no significant community opposition to the closure. It encourages the Postal Service to work with the community to explore options such as co-locating a post office within a retail store or sharing space with government agencies. Senator Collins authored a key provision that would result in the continued operation of the Eastern Maine Processing Center in Hampden by mandating certain overnight delivery standards in some areas. In Maine, reliable overnight delivery service would be impossible without both the Eastern Maine facility in Hampden and the Southern Maine plant in Scarborough. The Hampden plant could not be closed as long as these standards become law.

I wanted to express my appreciation and congratulations for your extraordinaryefforts to put the U.S. Postal Service on a path to long-term financial viability.Members of both parties together created workable compromises that providevaluable and important provisions in the legislation, critical to the financialviability of the Postal Service.

I hope that the House will now follow your lead in helping to position one of thisnation's greatest and oldest institutions for future success.